Various aspects of call center operations are typically directed by an operations group made up of a number of staff personnel who operate a computer system that may be referred to as a workforce management computer system. This computer system is communicatively coupled to a communication switch that provides telecommunication services to one or more call centers. Telephone call statistics related to call center operations are transmitted by the communication switch to the workforce management computer system, where the operations group then performs data gathering, analysis, and prediction with the goal of managing the labor force that operates a call center. In addition to obtaining call statistics from the communication switch, the data gathering aspect also includes obtaining information from the call center, such information including operator attendance data, operator efficiency data, and operator availability data.
Such operator-related information is often provided by call center staff who routinely monitor call center telephone operators by carrying out, what are known in the industry as, “observations.” These observations are typically carried out during a certain number of times every month, upon each operator of a call center. While some aspects of these observations, such as for example, evaluating the contents of the phone conversations, are subjective in nature, other evaluation parameters such as the length of time that the operator is physically seated at her position and the number of calls that are dropped by the operator, can be measured in a distinctly quantifiable manner with a higher degree of objectivity and accuracy.
Other employees in the call center include a staffing group that accepts guidance from the operations group and suitably increases or decreases the number of operators at any given instance, based on current and predicted call volume. The staffing personnel also carry out hiring and firing duties that include the hiring of temporary operators. A number of these activities are recorded on paper as well as on individual computers that are used by the staffing personnel, using a set of entry codes that have been assigned/defined for this staffing group.
The call center also typically includes a management information services (MIS) group whose duties include salary calculations/payments related to the operators. The calculations and recording of data regarding these payments is carried out in computers that are used by the MIS group. Here again, the MIS staff use their own set of entry codes, which may or may not be identical to those used by the staffing group, in spite of the MIS group using information such as attendance data provided by the staffing group, to calculate salaries. Often, the attendance data and other such data is provided by the staffing group to the MIS group in the form of paper documentation, or in the form of electronic spreadsheets. This data is then typically used by the MIS group to produce a second set of paper documents or a second set of spreadsheets relating to MIS material such as payroll.
Several other groups in the call center carry out their activities, computer-oriented and otherwise, in this disjointed fashion wherein data transmitted from one group to another is neither streamlined nor standardized across the organization. This diverse collection of entry codes as well as relevant data is used by the operations group in their activities for streamlining call center operations, such as labor force management.
This type of work environment that uses non-standardized entry codes, non-integrated computer networks, and disconnected pieces of information, requires a large degree of manual intervention, thereby leading to various inefficiencies. Such inefficiencies contribute to a loss in terms of resources, time, and money.
Consequently, it is desirable to implement a system that overcomes these deficiencies.